CORRESPONDENCE.

Auckland Star, Volume L, Issue 12, 14 January 1919, Page 2

CORRESPONDENCE.

NOTICES TO OORRESTONDFATS

Your surmise its quite mistaken, 'i'h,. cable news accurately condense* tin , intelligence published in KiTfrlisli papers, without Hias. T.<\. KPSaM.—The case of anyone detained ill -i wntiil hospital ca.n bp inquired into nn application tn the visiting parties or l>v proceeding ill thr Supreme Court. •J..7. E. — Your letter, huvinc already appoan-d in another paper, w> cannot allot spaeo for its publication, co many coiTißiunicatiomi from other rorreuponilcnts are awaiting .1 chance of insertion. FAMTKE AND PLACiUK IN INDIA. IT,, tUo Editor./ Sir.—An apjx'ul was made in a Southern paper for help for famine and plague work in India, and tliis morning 1 rereived a. donation of CIS for it. Will you kindly allow space in your paper a1e...? ML-i Pulchcr, of the Zenana Bible and Medical Mission, who is in charge of the orphanage at India, writes: ; ' li has 'Ix'pn an awful time, both Miss Morgan and Mise Radcliffe, and fifty children ilown at once. Janima-, our matron, died, and we sorely miss her. for relapses are bad. We •hare no one to look after such a string oi bivbies. In vain I liave refused to take them. Fathers and relatives, themselves burning i«-ith fever, just put them dovra and stapler off. ] wish T could ffrt them photographed as they come. in. These are terrible days for the people; please pray for them in their sorrow." Knowing something of this awful plafjue ourselves, T would make an appeal to the sympathy of the people of Auckland.— I am, etc, S. L. V. RIMMKR, (Secretary Z.B. and M.il.) IS, Welleslcy Street. THE HOUSING QUESTION.

iTo llio TXlitor.i Sir,—l have road Mr. McOa.llurn's lettor on this question, and evidently ho it> viewing it pecuniarily and not humanely, as recent revelations proved tJiat a fair number of people, and particularly ehilI dren, were living under conditions inimii eal to their welfare and that of the city, I and it is recognised throughout the civiI lised world that environment moulds the mind and habite of children, and is not decent housing, with healthy surroundings, the starting point for the uplifting of the rising generation. Bomc of your readers may argue that in a country like thin the present unsatisfactory state of things should not exist, then why have we the charitable aid, Oostle.v Homo, and old age pension, which are not pecuniarily remunerative, but essential tor unfortunate humanity? Obviously they do exist here, and throughout the world, probably due to force of circumstance* improvidence, and hereditary inactivity, etv., through numerous causes, and the latter is what niU.'t be grappled with. Our ]>arkti and garden* ahow no monetary return, though they are necessary for the health and recreation of the city, but to have a certain section of the community cooped up under insanitary condition*;, which has been acknowledged by the Mayor, in not humane. Private enterprise in housing in several instance*; for tho*e under discussion has not boon a mil-cess, otherwise there wouldn't be such an outcry by the numerous epidemic workers of all elaasefi. -Mr. McOalUini concludes with an analogy as to groceries, boots, butter, milk, etc., sold at a heavy loss to a few. If they were «old- under conditions similar to rccr.nt revelations there would be a disaster, but fortunately the coses are not analogous. The article? mentioned are manufactured under sanitary conditions, and through rivalry have their market values, otherwise the Government would lx> compelled to assume control for the protection of the health, etc., of the community, and if private enterprise has failed in giving sanitary housing, is it n-ot time for the authorities to aseumo control? This is the question at ifISUO, and not one «olely of £ *. d.. as good health is a nation's ■wealth. The Hon. Lloyd <icorgo quite reenntly mentioned the unsatisfactory state of health in Kngland. proved by the large percentage of military rejects, traceable to a large extent in overcrowding in insanitary areas, thereby engendering diecafe. Evidently the £s. d. question is not troubling this great statesman; as a start he intends erecting half-a-million cottages, and -ivhy cannot we emulate according to our requirements.- T am, <•**•., p. VIRTUE.

OXH-TRRK LOAN". (To the Editor.) Sir, — A circular issued by the majority of the Road Board describes the borrowing of £.15.000 for the concreting of two miles of our main roads as a business proposition of enormous benefit to the ratepayers. To mc it seems to be spending of a large amount of money for the benefit of other people, an example of benevolence carried to the verge of folly. 1 am wholly in favour of any progressive work being pushed on. even at the oxpe.nse of an addition to our rates, but the time has conic when we should see that a more just manner be adopted for the expenditure on our main arterial roads, so that all those districts which benefit should pay their proportions of the cost to the benefit received. Why should the Onetree IJill ratepayers, who will receive small benefit from the concreting of these, roadways be taxed for the benefit of the traffic between Auckland and the outlying districts? It is proposed to burden our district with an annual debit of £2,405, cay CXOOO, for engineers' estimate are proverbially modest, increasing our rates fifty per cent so that the man who pays 4J4 would in the future have to pay £6, for the improvement of two roads which only border our district. Though the population of the One-tren Hill district is one-twenti-eth that of Auckland and its suburbs, we are asked to provide one-seventh of the <ost of concreting the Manukau Koiul. ] fail to see anything in tinshape of ,i " good business proposition " in concreting «n isolated putoh a mile luug on the Great South Road. H o w many minutes would be saved in a motor ear ride to Mercer? How much heavier ii load would a wagon carry from Utahuhu to Auckland? Where does the " enormous benefit" to the One-tree Hill ratepayer come in? This Ls a main arterial roadway that ought to be constructed and maintained by the Government through a properly' constituted Roads Board, anrl judiring the proposition by the circular referred to. there seems only one reasonable pie™ of advice to offer—turn it down.-T am, ot.-., RATEPAYER.